DFR Travels: Walvis Bay, Namibia...

Saturday, March 18. 21 C. Sunny sky. Quite comfortable. Day 74.

We were off on a 4-Wheel Drive trip to the Namibian Desert. Picked up at the pier in a four-seater Toyota Van that we shared with two ladies from Bellingham and Seattle: aunt and niece. Nice company.

The day was a pleasant mixed bag of Sand Dunes, desert panoramas, dusty canyons, and I now truly understand the amazing characteristics and benefits of an oasis. Our driver was Peter, a 6th generation Namibian who is a driver by trade, has a second job as a carpet layer and carpenter.

The trip lasted 5 1/2 hours so it affected the dinner, which we skipped and had at the Lido buffet upstairs later. I did the blog and checked out a couple of Heineken’s while Fellette attended a Children’s Choir before we ate. We also had to have a face to face passport inspection by Namibian Immigration officials, after which we could not leave the ship. It will be interesting to see if the other 22 countries we visit will have the same Banana Republic mentality as Namibia.

Jim and Gail went on a different excursion.

A Very Good Day…

A sunken small sailing ship as viewed from our cabin.

That mountain is a Sand Dune. The whole place it seems is sand!

A very frightened lizard that a driver spotted on the road, the whole string of vans stopped to see it. It was scooped up on a branch and moved to safety. This little creature has no idea what efforts were taken today to save his life.

A familiar sight today, dust trails from Vans.

Moonscape stop.

It is almost impossible to judge distance in such a landscape.

Is that a 400 meter gap to the mound or 2 KM? We were overdressed this morning but it worked out fine: no sunburn.

Fellette leaning on our Van in front.

Pouring water on a bit of lichen that has been drying in the desert sun and it seems to come to life and perks up before your very eyes.

A cool map of the area on the hood of a Van.

Canyon Driving.

This ‘tree' is about 800 years old. It is called a tree because it has a trunk, two leaves and a taproot that goes down three meters and more. Some ’trees’ are over 2000 years old. The age can be determined by the diameter of the ‘trunk’ as they know how fast that grows. It is a Welwitschia tree. But it really is a plant.

Some volcanic rocks are 80% iron and when pounded sound just like hitting cast iron. Those rocks do not break down due to rain, sun and wind erosion so they end up on top of the smaller ordinary rocks that turn to sand.

That round rock in the middle has apparently been polished by Elephants rubbing on it. There is/was some elephants in Namibia. Not too sure if they have survived the centuries in this unforgiving desert.